Gate valve for toilet system for trailers

ABSTRACT

In a recirculating toilet construction having a tank with an outlet opening at its bottom, a gate slide valve is provided for draining the tank. The slide valve is sealingly mounted below the tank and has a second seal connecting the valve housing to an outlet pipe. A single bracket fastens the valve to the tank and to the outlet pipe.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Norbert James Palmer PlayaDel Rey, Calif. Appl. No` 829,824

United States Patent [72] Inventor PMENTED JUN e nan SHEET 1 UF 2PATENTEU JUN 8 Isn SHEU 2 UF 2 ta. u?

Arme/V56 GATE VALVE FOR TOILET SYSTEM FOR TRAILERS The presentapplication is a division of my U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 680,776,filed Nov. 6, 1967, U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,171, which was a division of myU.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 438,500 filed Mar. l0, 1965, nowabandoned, and is assigned to the same assignee.

The present invention relates to toilet arrangements which areparticularly useful for installations in house trailers, boats, buses,trailers or in other mobile, semimobile or stationary installations. Thetoilet arrangement described herein involves generally a toilet bowlmounted on a storage tank with a filter pump assembly mounted within thetank to recirculate flushing fluid such as has been generally shown inthe copending application for patent of William F. Katona et al., Ser.No. 590,757, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,221, issued Dec. 5, 1967. Whilesimilar arrangements have heretofore been providedfor use in aircraft,the present arrangement is featured by its simplicity, inexpensivenessand compactness.

It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide animproved toilet arrangement particularly useful in a practical andcommercial sense for the above indicated purposes.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel areset forth with particularity in the appended claims. This inventionitself, both as to its organization and manner of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages thereof, may be best understood byreference to the following description taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. l is generally a top plan view of a construction embodying featuresof the present invention, with some parts broken away to show internalconstructions.

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation with a portion of the tank brokenaway, and corresponds generally to a view taken along line 2-2 of FIG.l.

FIG. 3 is a view taken substantially as indicated by line 3-3 in FIG. 2,with a portion of the odor seal broken away.

FIG. 4 is a view taken as indicated by the line 4-4 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 5-5 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are sectional views taken on line 8-8 and 9-9,respectively, in FIG. 7.

The bowl l and tank I2 may be integrally formed and may be of plasticmaterial fabricated in accordance with conventional plastic mouldingtechniques, although it will be understood that, as illustrated, thebowl 10 and tank l2 may be separately formed and mechanically orchemically sealingly joined together. In some instances, the tank 12 maybe an ex isting tank on a house trailer normally used in storage ofwaste water from the trailer sink, shower and/or lavatory and suitablyadapted to receive and mount the filter and pump assembly indicated at14.

The assembly I4 includes a multipart housing 16 having an upper flangedportion 18 through which a series of screws 20 (FIG. extends forfastening the assembly to the upper surface of tank 12 with a sealinggasket 22 sandwiched therebetween.

This multipart housing 16 is formed with a passageway 24 whichterminates in an upper nipple portion 26 for convenient attachment ofone end of a flexible hose 28 having its other end attached to a nippleportion 30 integrally formed with bowl I0 to thereby provide a confinedpath through which flushing fluid may flow from the tank I2 and intobowl l0 for return to the tank 12.

Preferably, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the throat portion A of bowl I0is generally elliptical and is fitted with a collapsible sleeve 10Bwhich is normally closed to provide an odor seal, but whichautomatically opens under slight fluid pressure exerted on the sleeve.

The toilet seat 32 is hingedly mounted by hinge structure 32A on a tank12 and has a cover 34 hinged thereto.

Referring now to the detailed construction of the pump filter assemblyI4 in FIG. 5, it is seen that the multipart housing 16 includes an uppercylindrical housing element 36 having the flanged portion I8 withinwhich a drive motor 38, a protective fuse, and a time delay motorcontrol switch 40 are disposed, the motor 38 being mounted on the baseportion 36A by bolts 42, with its shaft 38A extending into an annularchamber 44 defined by a cup-shaped element 48 fitted within housingelement 50 and disposed between an internal shoulder portion 50A and anannular flanged portion 36B of housing element 36.

The time delay switch 40 is mounted on the cover member S2 by bolts S3,with a manually operable pushbutton 54 extending through the cover. Theswitch 40 is of conventional construction and is operatively connectedto pushbutton 54 such that depression and release of button 54 causesthe switch 40 to close and remain closed only for, for example, 5 or 10seconds, at which time the switch times itself out and returns to itsnormally open condition. The switch 40 is connected electrically inseries with the motor 38 and power leads by flexible wires (not shown)in housing element 36. Such power leads sealingly entering the interiorof housing element 36 are also omitted from the drawings for purposes ofsimplicity.

Motor shaft 38A is coupled by flexible coupling element 54 to the upperend of an impeller pump shaft 56. The shaft ex tends sealingly throughthe base portion 48A of housing element 48 and carries a small gear 58meshing with a larger gear 60 on shaft 62. The shaft 62 is in sealedchamber 64 which may be filled with a lubricant.

These shafts 56, 62 extend sealingly through the large base portion ofhousing element 50 which provides a bearing for the same and into andthrough the housing and spacer element 66 and also through a thick wallportion 68A of pump casing element 68 which provides a bearing for thelower ends of shafts 56, 62.

A pump impeller 70 is on shaft S6 and serves to pump fluid upwardly, asindicated by the arrows, in a path which extends through an aperturedportion 72A of a closure plate 72, such apertured portion beingcentrally aligned with the rotational axis of impeller 70 which acts asan element of a centrifugal pump to propel the fluid upwardly into theradially displaced passageway or channel 24 defined by aligned aperturedportions in elements 66 and 68.

The lower end of shaft 62 mounts a gear 76 meshing within an internalgear 78 integrally formed on a filter element 80 which is rotated at aslower speed than rotor or impeller 70. The filter element 80 iscup-shaped and in addition to being formed with the internal gear 78 isformed with a plurality of circumferentially extending slit portions 80Awhich limit the size of particles that may enter the pump chamber. Thefilter element 80 is rotatably supported and cleaned by two straps orLshaped wiper elements 84, each of which has a series of toothedportions 84A extending into outer circumferentially extending groovedportions 80B on the filter element 80, each of such wiper elements 84being supported as a cantilever by fastening screws 86 threaded into thestationary pump housing 68.

The base portion of the filter element may also be provided with one ormore series of slits, as indicated at 80C in FIG. 6.

The wipers 84 thus provide a bearing member for supporting the filterelement 80, and also the upper portion 80E of the filter element 80cooperates with a circular undercut portion 68D of pump housing 68 withsuch portion 68D also serving as a bearing element.

The housing elements 66, 68, 50 and 36 may be interconnected usingvarious techniques such as, for example, threaded fasteners asexemplified by a series of fasteners 90 in FIG. 5 which serve tosemipermanently interconnect the elements 66 and 50.

The lower end of tank l2 is shown closed by a gate valve assembly or maybe fitted with a drain connection for a valve mounted under the floor,and is secured to a floor F of,

for example, a building such as a trailer using the followingconstruction. (FIGS. 2, 7, 8 and 9) A drain pipe 102 is fitted with athreaded flange 104 which is secured to the floor F by screws 106.

The tank 12 is provided with an annular base portion 12A which rests onthe floor F. A part of this base portion is in the form of' a removableclosure member 108 for gaining access to the drain valve 100 and gainingaccess to mounting studs 146. (FIG. 8)

The valve housing 110 or drain adapter is secured to the tank 12 by aseries of screws 112 (FIG. 9) with an annular seal 116 within a groovedportion of tank 12 being contacted by a raised bead portion of a plate118 that serves to retain the annular valve seat 120. A movable valvemember 124 in the form of a sliding gate is slidably mounting in housing110 for cooperation with the seat 120 to close the valve. The valve maybe opened by removing the closure member 108 and actuating the handle128, the handle 128 being on one end of a rod 130 attached to closuremember 124.

As seen in FIG. 2, the valve housing 110 is fitted into a heavy rubberring 140, as seen in FIG. 8, such ring 140 is clamped to the flange 104using a series of studs 146 and brackets 148.

As shown in FIG. 7, the closure member 108 is a flexible curved plateAand is provided with a hooked portion 108A at each of its ends wherebythe same may be quickly attached to and detached from the stationarybase portion 12A to gain access to the valve handle 128 or mountingstuds 146.

Initially, the tank l2 is precharged with a mixture of water andconventional chemicals to the level indicated in FIG. 2. The bowl may beflushed at any time by depressing and releasing button 54 in which casefluid in tank 12 is circulated by the impeller pump 70, with the filterbasket 80 rotating and being cleaned by the stationary finger portionsor blades 84A.

It will be seen that the assembly 14 may be conveniently disassembled asa unit from tank 12 for repair or replacement purposes by removing thefastening bolts 20, disconnecting the hose connection 28 and thenpulling the unit upwardly through the apertured portion in the uppersurface of tank 12 which normally supports the entire unit 14. When thisis accomplished, access is also had to the odor seal for replacementpurposes.

While the particular embodiments of the present invention have beenshown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art thatchanges and modifications may be made without departing from thisinvention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the aim in the appendedclaims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of this invention.

Iclaim:

l. A toilet system including a tank having an outlet opening at itsbottom; a gate slide valve having a housing and a gate valve elementslidably mounted in said housing; first means sealingly interconnectingsaid housing to said outlet opening, including a raised bead on saidhousing engaging a seal ring within a grooved portion of said tank; andoutlet pipe; second means sealingly interconnecting said housing to saidoutlet pipe, including a flange secured to said outlet pipe; a secondseal ring between said flange and said housing; a bracket element; firstfastening means securing said bracket element to said tank to press thefirst-mentioned seal ring between said housing and said tank; and secondfastening means securing said bracket element to said flange to presssaid second seal ring between said housing and said flange; said valveelement being slidable in said housing to effect a communication betweensaid outlet opening and said outlet pipe.

1. A toilet system including a tank having an outlet opening at itsbottom; a gate slide valve having a housing and a gate valve elementslidably mounted in said housing; first means sealingly interconnectingsaid housing to said outlet opening, including a raised bead on saidhousing engaging a seal ring within a grooved portion of said tank; andoutlet pipe; second means sealingly interconnecting said housing to saidoutlet pipe, including a flange secured to said outlet pipe; a secondseal ring between said flange and said housing; a bracket element; firstfastening means securing said bracket element to said tank to press thefirst-mentioned seal ring between said housing and said tank; and secondfastening means securing said bracket element to said flange to presssaid second seal ring between said housing and said flange; said valveelement being slidable in said housing to effect a communication betweensaid outlet opening and said outlet pipe.